Yellen calls for minimum global corporate income tax
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday urged the adoption of a minimum global corporate income tax, an effort to at least partially offset any disadvantages that might arise from the Biden administration’s proposed increase in the U.S. corporate tax rate.
Citing a “30-year race to the bottom” in which countries have slashed corporate tax rates in an effort to attract multinational businesses, Yellen said the Biden administration would work with other advanced economies in the Group of 20 to set a minimum.
“Competitiveness is about more than how U.S.-headquartered companies fare against other companies in global merger and acquisition bids,” Yellen said in a virtual speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “It is about making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods.”
The speech was Yellen’s highest-profile so far on international affairs, and came just as the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund began in a virtual format.
Europeans Are Optimistic About Global Tax Agreement by June
(Bloomberg) — European Union officials are looking to wrap up a global agreement to harmonize corporate taxes and impose more effective levies on internet giants by the end of June following an appeal from the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s call for a global minimum tax rate for companies was warmly received. Paolo Gentiloni, the EU commissioner for economic affairs, raised the prospect